Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from Saudi Arabia and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1965 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976 at the first Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing The Smiths to the disco kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by Gregory Isaacs. All the underground hits.
All Radio Birdman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Chocolate Watch Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Glambeats Corp. record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Yaz,
Smog,
Sarah Menescal,
Piero Umiliani,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Joe Smooth,
The New Christs,
Eddi Front,
The Cosmic Jokers,
The Zeros,
Flash Fearless,
Y Pants,
Wally Richardson,
Loose Ends,
The Slackers,
Radiopuhelimet,
The Searchers,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
10cc,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Visage,
Bill Near,
Frankie Knuckles,
the Soft Cell,
Morten Harket,
Isaac Hayes,
Brand Nubian,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Gang Gang Dance,
The Walker Brothers,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Royal Trux,
Sun City Girls,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Mummies,
Mission of Burma,
Scrapy,
Whodini,
Rod Modell,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Newcleus,
the Sonics,
The Knickerbockers,
Boz Scaggs,
Brass Construction,
Bizarre Inc.,
Girls At Our Best!,
The Golliwogs,
Joensuu 1685,
Crispian St. Peters,
Terrestrial Tones,
Throbbing Gristle,
Eli Mardock,
Wasted Youth,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Scratch Acid,
Funky Four + One,
The Electric Prunes,
Rosa Yemen,
The Gap Band,
Colin Newman,
The Young Rascals,
X-101,
Marshall Jefferson, Marshall Jefferson, Marshall Jefferson, Marshall Jefferson.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.